Science fiction is no stranger to the idea of mixing humans and computers. The thought of synthetically enhancing our body and becoming a cyborg sounds quite cool. Wikileaks founder, Julian Assange, thinks we could take it further and “digitise” our brain and effectively become immortal.

Apparently, we’re closer to ultra-powerful AI than we think. Assange states that Silicon Valley, which is considering the tech capital of the world, are ever so close. He suggests that it will be getting to the point where people digitise their brain, giving them everlasting life, living through a simulation. It sounds fascinating, but also scary. He has said the following:

“I know from our sources deep inside the Silicon Valley institution[s] that they genuinely believe that they are going to produce AI that’s so powerful, relatively soon, that people will have their brains digitised, uploaded to these AIs and live forever in simulation, therefore have eternal life.

“It’s like a religion for atheists. And given you’re in a simulation, why not program the simulation to have endless drug and sex orgy parties around you?”

Julian Assange is the founder of WikiLeaks, which he founded in 2006. (Image: ABC)

To Live Forever

The idea of living forever physically doesn’t appeal to me. There are too many people on Earth already for us to sustain ourselves. However, living in simulation happily forever sounds… intriguing. I’m no wild child, I wouldn’t have hardcore parties around me all the time. But the possibilities are endless if the technology were to exist. Who knows, it may become the norm eventually. When your physical body is nearly finished, you’ll have yourself immortalized in digital format, so your loved ones won’t miss you too much.

Although… that sounds really unhealthy. As soon as 30 years from now, this “immortalisation” could be a common standard. That’s so long as the technology is even realistically possible. Does it sound good to you? Or is Julian talking complete nonsense? Let us know your thoughts.